Ryan_Johnson

I'm doing a big test this Friday with alot of the popular paddletails and swimbaits. Basstrix, money minnow, poor boys, Tiny "E", Reaction Strike, Powerbait Hollow belly and Realistix, Storm kickin slab and live sunfish (sunfish is already up), Bass Magic, Bakubaits, Castaic, just to name a few. Should have results up by Sunday.

That's what those spare tire compartments are for. I seriously have stuffed them a couple of times. The trick is to leave out a small bag of stuff, because she knows you'll buy something. Little does she know that it's in BULK ;D

I'll agree that the rod does the work and a greater change in distance will come with rod changes, but reels do affect the distance. Take a 12 foot world record thrower rod and put any reel on it. Crank the brakes as tight as they will go and see how far you can toss anything. My buddy that's a (custodial) engineer would probably come up with an equation for the situation. Something like this RS>LS= oops. That's a mess! RS<LS= :-[ that didn' go very far RS= Reel spool speed LS= Lure speed

Worst I've had was a Quantum Accurist followed closely by a Shimano Cruxis. Best distance came from a Abu Garcia Revo SX, but it was always on the verge of disaster no matter how tight I cranked it down. That reel lasted a couple of days before something broke in it and it started grinding when cranked. I don't think I get as much distance with my Zillion and Fuego as I did witht the Revo, but I trust them to work correctly all the time. I've never tested them against each other because I use them for different applications. A Steez and a 153HSTA were added this year, so I'll let you know when I use them.

I'm a big fan of the Sluggo. I've caught just as many fish on the Senko, but the average size is better on the Sluggo. One of my favorite ways to use it is to run it through the slop. There's nothing that will go through heavy vegetation like a Sluggo. It's not as fragile as the Senko, and if the head does rip under the hook eyelet, just tear that part off and rerig it with a flat face. It will have almost the same glide, but it'll come up to the top and pop.

Not much luck on the rattletraps, LC live pointers, YoZuri Crystal minnow, and the ole monsters

I took several packs for boat rides all year, and finally used them starting in August when nothing seemed to be working at the time. I was using a texas rigged 6" worm, and getting little hits, picking up one here and there. I took the worm off and put on a red shad beast, and started getting some hard hits. None of the little taps like the worm was producing, they were hitting it hard and running, usually on the hop. They have a slow gliding fall, similar to the other sweet beaver baits. I never tried rigging them backwards, but I don't see why it would not work. They seem to rip easily right below the hook eyelet when you catch bass on them, but like I said earlier, they do get hit hard. What I did was just tear the ripped section off flat and rig them up again. I didn't use screw in weights or peg the weight, just let it slide around. For this bait, I think that's the best option. If the bullet weight is free, it can slide up the line, and the beast will glide down more naturally.

Was this at the Woodbury store? If it was, I took advantage of it as well. I went back yesterday, and there was the oxblood colored 6" robotails for 99cents. I've never used them before, so I tested them out in the pool. They all work exactly like I had hoped. They also sell the Daiwa Fuegos and Sols for $179 there.

All models of Falcons are nice rods, each series seams to be worth the extra money. I really like my Cara series rods and you can find them on sale for $120. Daiwa light and tough rods are a great value. The new Tierra series feel nice, but havent' used one. I grew up using Fenwicks, and I still have a couple of GT series that have lasted 10+ years.

My wife and I don't have kids, and she doesn't like to go fishing, so I just go whenever I want to get out. Last year, she found out I bought my boat when I backed it into the driveway. I told her for months that I was getting one, but she didn't think I was serious. She still uses this as an excuse for buying whatever she happens to want at the moment.

The line stripper works really good if you're still wondering. Kind of fun too. It'll clean off a reel in no time.

I glanced through the Cabelas online catalog for 2 piece rods to figure out what people are using. 2 piece baitcasters are non existant for the most part. I know that there is a Daiwa Ceilo that is a 2 piece, but only because it's over 7'6" and not telescopic. For spinning rods, there are some, but not many. Some avids, and a couple others that I don't remember. -Only looked through rods that I would buy. Looking throug the avid, legend, falcon cara/lowrider, Daiwa L&T, Loomis GL2, IMX

Andrew, The fish you catch don't know if you're using a spinning rod or baitcaster. It's going to take some time to learn to use the baitcaster. What I would recomend is that if you do get one, bring your spinning rod along with you when you go fishing. Nothing ruins a day faster than a huge backlash that you have to cut out. If you're getting a baitcasting setup, I would recomend staying with a one piece rod- which is self descriptive. The two piece rods will tend to move where the 2 pieces of the rod connect. 2 piece rods are easier to travel with if you're stuck in cars or on bikes. They're usually cheaper as well because they really are not used by many avid anglers and likely don't have high end components. I don't know anything about the rod/reel that you mention, but I learned the hard way that you get what you pay for with baitcasters. I learned with a cheap Quantum, and it was frustrating. I found out after using a friends baitcaster how bad mine really was.

This is kind of a Ford vs. Chevy question. Everyone has their favorites, and they may or may not work for you. Some people have smaller/larger hands and some rod/reel setups just don't feel right. Go to your favorite fishing store and check them out. Pick out a few of your favorites and ask the sales people to throw a zillion on there for you. Buy the one that feels the best to you. Great reel by the way. I've got several of them and really like them. I have one paired up with a 7' Fenwick Techna AV MH. It's my workhorse and would recomend it. It does have a longer handle on it which might bother some people, but if you wrap your forearm around it and keep it close, there's tons of leverage there.

Anything that lets you get a glimpse of the fish blasting it! I would have to go with.... spooks subwarts sluggos

I didn't have a good experience with my Revo. I bought one of the early ones last spring and I ended up returning it. The one I bought was the middle level $150 one. Maybe they've gotten better. What I found was that the brakes really didn't do much on mine. I could crank them down tight or leave them loose, and the reel would not change. I was impressed by the distance that you could get, but it was always on the verge of disaster. After 3 days of useage, something let go inside of it, and it sounded like a coffee grinder when I cranked it. My shimano toting partner really let me have it when that thing broke! I wouldn't mind having one that worked correctly, because that thing could really get stuff out far.

Yes, the fur is different, but for a topwater I don't think it makes a difference. I think they'll see the movement and the shape above them, and decide instantly to hit it or not. I don't think topwater is much of a finesse game and overall I was disappointed in the Furbit. I had one last year, and in my tank it look like an average frog. The fur moves some, but it wasn't that great. This $10 frog lasted one cast for me. A big pike shredded it along with the 65lb power pro that it was attached to. So long Furbit! You would have just taken up room in my tacklebox or I would have given you away anyway. I don't bother with any of the single frogs anymore. They are cool and do have more features, but they're just too expensive for what you get. I switched to using the plasic frogs from whatever is on sale, or if I have to choose, I'll get the hardnose frogs or horny toads. Most of the time, I'll be hopping them through thick cover or on top of mats, so the bass really doesn't know that I didn't buy the lastest greatest.

Reelmechanic, I'm new to this board, and it's probably been brought up before, but what reels do you like and dislike? Since you get to see broken reels all the time, is there a particular reason to stay away from a particular Daiwa, Shimano, Abu, etc.??

Nice article Cade! It looks like you're on some nice fish. Where will there be open water on the river this winter to get onto to get those Dec,Jan, Feb bass?

I just looked up the stupid tube, and it is essentially the same thing rig as the phantom hook. The stupid tube uses a jighead with a wide offset eyelet as seen here. http://tackle.redshad.com/proddetail.php?prod=WNS&cat=24 Click on rigging instructions in the description and there's a diagram of it.

I just got some Owner phantom weighted tube hooks, and they seem really nice. I rigged some up and tested them in my 75 gal aquarium, and I like the results. Here's the link to what they look like http://www.***.com/descpage-OWTH.html What you do is run the hook point through the bottom of the tube, out the top, and back to the bottom. Then you poke the eyelet out wherever you want the line to enter, tie on, then push it back into the tube. Looks to be a very good weedless setup. Of course I'm finding all kinds of stuff now that my boat is stored away for the winter.

If you're looking for a cheap smaller wakebait try the Storm Subwart. I gave one to Cade, who posts on here, and I think he nicknamed it the Big Nasty or something like that. They don't look like much, but their action is great. They have this huge, slow wobble combined with loud rattles, and when they get hit, it's an explosion in the water. My biggest hit ever came from on of these. I was running it parallel to the outer weedline, and this 5lb pike blasted through the thick weeds like a cannonball from twenty feet away and destroyed that little thing. Not the biggest fish by any means, but the whole scene was just violent.